Did you know that the United States spends more than $150 billion annually on health care administration, and for the average physician, two-thirds of a full time employee is needed to carry out billing and insurance related tasks?

We at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are charged with carrying out and enforcing the administrative simplification requirements for HIPAA-covered entities, which include health care providers that conduct certain transactions in electronic form, health care clearinghouses, and health plans.

The administrative simplification mandates require the adoption of operating rules for each of the HIPAA Administrative transactions; a unique, standard Health Plan Identifier (HPID); and standards and operating rules for electronic funds transfers (EFT) and claims attachments.

Two key components of administrative simplification are Version 5010 and ICD-10. Version 5010 modified standards for electronic transactions and created the platform to support the expanded ICD-10 code sets. The ICD-10 code sets convey clinical advances in health care and current medical protocols in the administrative transactions.

If you are attending the HIMSS13 conference and would like to hear more about these initiatives, be sure to catch our ICD-10 and Administrative Simplification session (Education Session 131) on March 6, 2013, 8:30 – 9:30 am. And please stop by our booth (#2868) in the exhibit hall.

We also have helpful resources to help you stay up to date on ICD-10 and other administrative simplification initiatives.